Monday, November 3, 2003

Pecos swept by Greenwood in playoff

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The playoffs are fast approaching, but the Pecos Eagles volleyball team
is headed in the wrong direction, coach Becky Granado said, following
Saturday's loss to the Greenwood Rangerettes.

The Eagles, who could have clinched second place in the District
4-3A standings last Tuesday with a win at Greenwood, lost in four games
to the Rangerettes, forcing a playoff Saturday night in Monahans. But
playing on a neutral court, the results were even worst for Pecos than
at Greenwood, as they were swept by the Rangerettes 25-20, 25-15,
25-18.

The loss sends Pecos into a 7:30 p.m. bi-district playoff match on
Tuesday against the Lamesa Golden Tornadoes at the Ector Junior High
gymnasium. Lamesa defeated Pecos at Ector last year in the bi-district
round of the playoffs.

"We have no fight," Granado said after the game. "I just finished
talking to them and I told them I'm waiting for my key players to step
up. If they don't step it up, we're not going to have a chance."

"We had a tough time passing and serving. In the third game we
missed six serves and that hurt us," Granado said.

The six serves kept the Eagles from taking advantage of Greenwood's
own problems in Game 3. The Rangerettes had fallen behind early in the
opening game, 8-4, before scoring 16 of the next 20 points to grab a
20-12 lead, then dominated Game 2 and never trailed.

Greenwood's Kim Smith, after struggling at the start of the match,
had a trio of hits in Game 2 after Pecos had cut a 6-2 lead to 6-5,
while Jaymie Flowers led the Rangerettes' comeback in the opening game
from their early 8-4 hole. Stephanie Herrera had a trio of kills during
that run, but overall, the Eagles' front line was outplayed by
Greenwood in the match.

"We're going to have to hit the ball," Granado said, referring to
the Eagles' problems getting any hard spike attempts off for most of
the night. "We can't go over there Tuesday night and think we can dink
the ball and win. Leslie (Rodriguez), Danielle (Garcia) and Bre'Ann
(Windham) are going to have to hit the ball, and we're going to have to
play much better defense."

"I've got six seniors who need to step it up; not just one of them,
but all six of them," the Eagles' coach added.

Granado even tried to shake things up at one point by putting three
freshmen in the game at the same time. Amalie Herrera, Cassandra
Terrazas and Adriana Armendariz shared court time during Game 3 in an
effort to get something going, but after Vanessa Garcia served the ball
into the net to give the Rangerettes a 16-15 lead, Smith then scored an
ace serve and Flowers had a spike as part of a 6-0 run by Greenwood
that for all intents and purposes ended the match.

The Rangerettes finish District 4-3A play with an 8-3 record and are
19-20 on the season going into their bi-district match on Tuesday
against Seminole. Pecos is 15-17, and 7-4 in district going into their
match-up against Lamesa, which is 26-10 on the season after placing
second in District 3-3A.

Panthers passing attack grounds Eagles, 24-7

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Outside of Quincy Carter's turnaround with the Dallas Cowboys, not too
many passers have had as quick an improvement in their results as Fort
Stockton's Wayne Jefferson did Friday night against the Pecos Eagles.

However, Carter's turnaround under Bill Parcells was compared to his
efforts from a year ago. Jefferson's turnaround came from one week to
the next, and helped end Pecos' playoff chances for 2003, as the Eagles
were beaten by Fort Stockton, 24-7.

The Panthers' quarterback, who came into the game second in the
district in rushing, had an even 100 yards on the night, almost half of
that on a 48-yard touchdown run in the final period that clinched the
victory. But it was the change in his passing numbers, both from the
previous week against Greenwood and from the Panthers' other recent
games, which permitted Fort Stockton to snap a five game losing streak
and hand Pecos its fifth straight defeat.

Jefferson, who was 3-for-20 with two interceptions against
Greenwood, was 14-for-19 for 148 yards against Pecos, including passes
to Jeremy Velasquez in the first half that set up a pair of Panther
touchdowns.

"He was throwing well, and we were just confused defensively for
some reason," said Eagles' coach Patrick Willis. "I'll have to look at
the film to see why they were so wide open, but defensively we were
just not doing the job."

Offensively, the Eagles cut down on both their turnover and penalty
numbers from the previous week, when they gave Monahans 17 third
quarter points off turnovers in a 37-0 loss. But Pecos didn't do that
much positive on offense, either. They were able to take advantage of a
fumbled punt by Velasquez in the second quarter to tie the game, on a
quarterback sneak by Oscar Parada, but finished the night with just 142
yards in total offense.

Exactly half of that came from freshman running back Luis Ortega,
and all of that total in the third quarter. Oretga, who was brought up
when running back Booker Fobbs missed two days of workouts last week
due to illness, carried the ball 13 times for 71 yards in his varsity
debut.

"He could see the holes. They were there," Willis said. However,
after runs by Ortega helped the Eagles drive down to Fort Stockton's
24-yard-line early in the third period, Ortega fumbled a 3rd-and-1
handoff from Parada, which the Panthers' Alfred Muniz recovered at the
23. The Panthers then drove deep into Eagle territory before Chris
Johannsen booted a 38-yard field go to increase Fort Stockton's lead to
17-7.

Ortega would carry the ball eight straight times on Pecos' next
series, as the Eagles drove the ball down to the Panthers'
19-yard-line. But he was stopped for no gain on the final play of the
third period and the second play of the fourth quarter, after a fumbled
snap by Parada on third down. Parada was then sacked by Matt Garvin on
fourth down, and the Panthers took over at their own 25.

"I probably went to the well a little too much, but it was the only
thing that was working," Willis said.

Garvin would sack Parada again on the next series, which ended with
Pecos losing the ball on downs at their own 48. Jefferson went around
the right end on the next play for his second touchdown of the night to
clinch the victory.

Fort Stockton converted four third down opportunities and one fourth
down attempt on their game-opening drive, a 17-play, 73 yard march that
took up the first 8:01 of the game. The key play was a 20-yard pass
from Jefferson to Velasquez on a 3rd-and-17 from the Pecos
26-yard-line. Daniel Martinez scored on the next play from six yards
out, breaking two tackles at the line of scrimmage.

Fobbs had four straight runs for 18 yards on Pecos' lone scoring
drive of the night, which began when Alex Orosco recovered Velasquez's
fumbled punt. Fobbs had a nine-yard run on 3rd-and-4, and then ran for
five more yards to set up Parada's score.

Orosco's extra point tied the game, but the Panthers took his
ensuing kickoff, and starting at their own 39, went 61 yards in 4:16 to
regain the lead. The key plays in that drive included a pass by
Jefferson to Martinez that deflected off his hands and was caught by
Velasquez for a 12-yard gain, after Pecos' line missed sacking the
Panthers' quarterback 12 yards behind the line. Jefferson then hit
Dustin Jones over the middle at the Eagles' 5-yard-line, and after a
motion call, would score on a 10-yard bootleg around the right end.

Fort Stockton improved to 1-2 in district, and can make the playoffs
with a win on Friday at Kermit. Both teams are 3-6 on the season, and
the Eagles will close out their year with a game on Friday against
Greenwood, which clinched a playoff spot thanks to the Panthers'
victory over Pecos.

"It boils down to whether the seniors want to play," Willis said.
"We'll see if they're proud of their alma mater and want to wear their
colors when they come out Friday."

***

In last Monday's story on the Pecos-Monahans game, an interception
in the end zone was incorrectly credited to Jaime Muela. The
interception was actually made by Simon Castillo.